Spring deck for furniture



w. RRRRRRRRRR ON 2,988,137

Filed July 16, 1958 i* iii @wg/MMM Lftlinited States Patent O soun FiledJuly 16, 1958, Ser. N o. 748,920 8 Claims. (Cl. 155-179) This inventionrelates to new and useful improvements in furniture, and has particularreference to the spring assemblies or bases in cushion type furniture,commonly known as spring decks.

The principal object of the present invention is the provision of aspring deck which has the form essentially of a flat mesh made of springwire, and is therefore f extremely low cost as compared to common typesof spring decks now in use, but which nevertheless possessescharacteristics and advantages presently available only in much moreexpensive spring assemblies. For example, most flat mesh spring deckshave an uncomfortable hammock effect whereby the sleeper (in the case ofa bed) lies in a trough formed by the deck, due to the fact that themesh itself is inelastic in its own plane and yields only since it issupported by springs around its edges. The present invention overcomesthis defect by means of a mesh which is specially constructed so as tobe elastically yieldable in all directions in its own plane. In thismanner substantially only the portion of the deck to which a load isactually applied will be deflected. This localization of the deflectionaccomplishes much the same effect as individual coil suspension in innerspring mattresses, and is generally accepted as one of the best knownmeans of obtaining maximum spring comfort. This localization ofdeflection is further enhanced by a special formation of the mesh whichprovides minimum transfer of deflection from one portion of the deckarea to another.

This object is accomplished by the provision of a mesh comprising aseries of generally parallel resilient Wires stretched across a frame,each wire being formed to present a series of loops, each of said loopsbeing interengaged with the corresponding loops of the next adjacentwires. Each row of interengaged loops, extending transversely to thegeneral run of the wires, constitutes a series of engaged links sointerlocked with each other that they are not freely pivotal, but form aresilient arch, and so arranged that downward deflection of the arch canbe ac complished only by flexing the affected links out of planar forminto an upwardly convex shape. The links are also slidable relative toeach other so as to prevent buckling or reversal of the arch when saidarch is deflected.

Other objects are simplicity and economy of structure, efficiency anddependability of operation, adaptability for convenient and compactstorage and shipping, and adaptability for use in applications otherthan in furniture, wherever a resilient spring deck or wall may bedesired.

With these objects in view, as well yas other objects which will appearin the course of the specification, reference will be had to thedrawing, wherein:

FIG. l is a top plan view of a spring deck embodying the presentinvention, and

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on line II-II of FIG. l.

Like reference numerals apply to similar parts throughout the drawing,and the numeral 2 applies generally to a frame which may by way ofillustration only be designated a furniture seat frame. As shown, it isopen and rectangular, comprising parallel side rails 4 and 6, andparallel side rails 8 and 10 disposed at right angles to rails 4 and 6,all of said rails being rigidly joined together in a unitary structure.Extending across said frame are a series of generally parallel,uniformly spaced wires each designated generally by the numeral 12. Saidwires are ICC formed of spring stock, and each is formed to present aseries of loops 14 which are spaced regularly across the frame and which`all lie substantially in the plane of the mesh. Each of the loops isclosed, that is, the portions of the wire at the base of each loop aredisposed in intersecting relation 'and extend in opposite directionsfrom said loop. The portions of the wire intermediate the loops may bedesignated as connecting portions 16. The end loops of each wire areaixed respectively to rails 4 and 6 of frame 2 by any suitable fastenerssuch as staples 18. Each of the loops 14 of the wire adjacent rail 8 ofthe frame is affixed thereto by a staple 20, and each of the connectingportions 16 of the wire adjacent rail 10 of the frame is aflixed theretoby a staple 22.

It will be seen that each loop V14 of each wire is inserted downwardlythrough the corresponding loop of the next adjacent wire, so that theformer loop itself is disposed beneath the latter loop, and theconnecting portions 16 directly adjacent the former loop are. disposedabove the latter loop, as clearly shown in the drawing. Before the meshis attached to the frame, it may be rolled very compactly for convenientstorage and shipping, thus eliminating much of the expense and excessivespace requirements of ordinary spring assemblies. When the mesh isstretched out for application to the frame, it will be seen that themode of interengagement of the loops prevents the mesh from assuming aplanar form and causes it to assume an upwardly convex archconfiguration as shown in FIG. 2, the larch extending in a directiontransverse to the general run of wires 12.

Each row of interengaged loops 14, extending transversely to the generalrun of the wires, may be considered as a series of links, each linkconstituting a loop 14 and the immediately adjacent portions of theconnecting portions 16 of the wire forming said loop. Each link is thussupported from beneath at its respective extreme ends by the adjoininglinks, and said adjoining links also extend inwardly from the extremeends of the rst link, and exert downward pressure on said first link atpoints spaced inwardly from its ends. In other words, each link issupported from beneath at its ends, and supports a downward pressure yatpoints spaced inwardly from its ends. When the mesh is tensioned forapplication to the frame, each loop is flexed from its normalsubstantially planar form to an upwardly concave conguration as clearlyshown in FIG. 2. The degree to which the loops are flexed in applyingthe rnesh to the frame represents a pre-tensioning of the spring deck,and other factors being equal, will determine the degree of softness oryieldability of the spring deck. Other factors affecting theyieldability characteristics of the deck yare of course the gauge andstiffness of the wire used, the tension in the individual wires, and thesize and spacing of loops 14. It will be understood that in mostapplications the deck will be covered by suitable layers of padding andupholstery.

Downward pressure on the deck, as encountered in ordinary usage, merelycauses an increase in the upwardly conc-ave curvature of the loops 14.The application and removal of loads to the deck will cause changes inthe effective length of the arch between frame rails 8 and 10,particularly a shortening thereof as the arch is compressed or flattenedunder load. This would cause a buckling, humping, or even possibly aldownward reversal of the arch, if it were not for the fact that thelinks formed by loops 14 are slidable relative to each other in thedirection of the arch. This sliding relation of the links permits thelength of the arch to be varied by changing the degree of overlapbetween adjacent links, and thereby prevents any buckling or humping ofthe arch.

Another important feature is that since the mesh is resilientlyyieldable in its own plane in all directions, the

deflection thereof when a load is applied to a restricted portionthereof will 4be restricted to the immediate area of the loadlapplication. This localization of dellection 1s in accord with acceptedstandards for greatest comfort, and is not obtainable in the usual flatmesh deck which is not itself resiliently yieldable in its own plane,but is resiliently supported around its edges. This localization ofdeflection is further enhanced by the closed configuration of loops 14.A load on any portion of the deck exerts opposite tension on theconnecting portions 16 Vof the wire adjacent each of the affected loops,tending to contract said loop to a smaller size. Since the loop may beso contracted to a considerable degree without appreciably displacingthe loops in adjoining wires to which it is connected, and since thecontraction increases the length of connection portions 16 extending toadjacent loops in the same wire in order that any contraction of thelatter loops is greatly reduced, it will be: apparent that the deckdeflection even in areas closely adjacent a zone of load `applicationwill be greatly reduced, and will decrease very rapidly as the distancefrom the load zone increases.

While I have shown and described a specific embodiment of my invention,it will be readily apparent that many minor changes of structure andoperation could be made without departing from the spirit of theinvention as dened by the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. A spring deck for furniture comprising a frame, a plurality of archesextending in generally parallel relation across said frame and securedat their respective ends to said frame, each of said arches comprising aseries of spring links each extending longitudinally of said arch andbeing resiliently ilexible in a direction transverse to said arch, thesaid links comprising each arch being interconnected with successivelinks overlapping each other in a direction longitudinal to said arch,the respective extreme end portions of each link being disposed aboveand bearing downwardly against the next adjacent link in spaced relationfrom the end thereof.

2. A spring deck as recited in claim 1 wherein the spring links in eachof said Iarches are slidable relative to each other longitudinally ofsaid arch.

3. A spring deck as recited in claim 1 wherein each of said arches islongitudinally tensioned between its points of attachment to said frame,wherebyeach of the spring i links thereof is flexed in an upwardlyconcave form to pretension said arch against downward deiiection.

4. A spring deck as recited in claim 1 with the addition of meansinterconnecting each adjacent pair of said arches at spaced intervalsalong their lengths.

5. A spring deck as recited in claim l wherein said spring links arearranged in rows transverse to said arches, each of said rows includinga single link in each of said arches, and wherein each of said rows oflinks constitutes a single length of resilient wire, said wire beingoffset to form said links.

6. A spring deck as recited in claim l wherein said spring links arearranged in rows transverse to said arches, each of said rows includinga single link in each of said arches, and wherein each of said rows oflinks constitutes a single length of resilient wire, said wire beingoifset to form said links and affixed at its opposite ends to saidframe.

7. A spring deck as recited in claim 1 wherein said spring links arearranged in rows transverse to said arches, each of said rows includinga single link in each of said arches, and wherein each of said rows oflinks constitutes a single length of resilient wire, said wire beingformed to present a series of generally coplanar loops lying generallyin the curved plane of said arches and connecting portions joining saidloops, each of said loops and the adjacent parts of the connectingportions constituting one of said links, each of said loops extendingdownwardly through the corresponding loops of a next ad- `joining wire,with the adjacent parts of said connecting portions being disposed abovethe loop of said adjoining wire.

8. A spring deck as recited in claim 7 wherein the loops in each of saidwires are each full, closed loops, the portions of the wire at theclosure of the loop overlapping each other slidably and extending ingenerally opposite directions from said loop, whereby longitudinaltension in said wire will tend to contract said loops.

References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS 840,093France Jan. 11, 1939 846,424 France June 5, 1939 257,076 SwitzerlandMar. 16, 1949 1,073,070 France Mar. 17, 1954 man.

